During an unveiling and dedication ceremony Thursday morning, family, friends and local leaders got their first look at the Bedford County bell that takes viewers on a journey across the county as seen through the lens of Bob Webb, a well-known photographer, artist, musician, actor and businessman who passed away July 17.

“Through Bob’s Eyes” is a visual legacy showcasing the county’s landmarks — such as the Coffee Pot, Dunkle’s Gulf Station and the Bedford Springs Resort — coupled with visions of everyday life — such as the portrait of a firefighter, winter farmlands and a fruit and vegetable stand.

“(Bob) captured our history and heritage in old barns and buildings, our industry and agriculture,” said Kellie Goodman Shaffer, president/CEO of the Bedford County Chamber of Commerce and a member on the county’s America250PA board.

Speaking before a standing-room-only crowd in the Bedford County Courthouse, Goodman Shaffer said the group tasked with planning Bedford County’s celebration of America’s 250th birthday still “very much considers Bob to be our leader.”

Bob Webb, seen with his camera in a photo from the 1980s, photographed the Knisely schoolhouse. This photo was originally a postcard sold at Old Bedford Village. Mirror photo by Holly Claycomb

With tears in her eyes, Goodman Shaffer said, “We are doing our best to do him proud and carry on the mission in his stead.”

Webb took over the county’s America250PA committee late in the planning process, Goodman Shaffer said, but he had a few priority goals right from the start. Namely, to get the county on track with its Liberty Tree, which he and his wife, Trena, sponsored.

Next came the county’s kickoff celebration on July 2, which helped raise interest in events to be planned throughout the next year, culminating with the county’s and nation’s Semiquincentennial celebrations.

The third item on his list, Goodman Shaffer said, was the bell, a fiberglass piece crafted in the shape of the Liberty Bell.

“Bob worked with the committee to secure the sponsors,” she said, adding “we were in the process of selecting an artist when we suddenly and tragically lost him.”

“Through Bob’s Eyes,” the Bedford County America250PA bell, features dozens of photographs by Bob Webb. Mirror photo by Holly Claycomb

After taking a break on the project, the committee regrouped, she said.

While the easiest solution would have been to tap artist Morgan Young to paint a mural on the bell, Young, a 250th committee member, instead suggested the group use Webb’s photographs to tell the county’s story.

Describing Young as a servant leader, Goodman Shaffer said the suggestion “was an incredibly kind, unselfish act.”

Young said when the project began, she didn’t have a single photo from Webb’s collection. But, with the help of Webb’s widow, Trena, and his daughter, Carisa (Webb) Brower, who both spent endless hours pouring through slides and photos, the project began to take shape.

“Bob was a wonderful person and super artist,” Young said. “There was no better way to depict our county than through his eyes.”

Ashton Webb and his sister Carisa Brower (right) talk about the Bedford County America250PA bell as Brower’s daughter Charlotte listens in and looks at the bell that features photographs taken by Bob Webb, Charlotte’s grandfather, who passed away in July, while artist Morgan Young looks on. Mirror photo by Holly Claycomb

A majority of the images on the bell are from vintage slides, dated from the mid-1980s, which “helped the bell become something of a time capsule,” she said.

In introducing the bell’s design, Young said Webb’s inspiration was life itself.

“It’s a photographic tale told one image after another,” she said.

The bell not only shows a life well lived, but the community at its finest, she said.

Trena Webb and Brower said the task of looking through Webb’s collection of images — in slide, negative, print and digital — was daunting.

Trena Webb (left) and artist Morgan Young unveil the Bedford County America250PA bell that features photographs by Bob Webb, who passed away in July. Mirror photo by Holly Claycomb

Webb owned and operated a local photography studio frequented by students for senior pictures, residents for family portraits and couples seeking wedding photos. In addition, he photographed youth ball teams, events and businesses.

“There were about 50 years of photographs we had to step through,” Trena said.

They ended up focusing a lot on Webb’s archive of slides and negatives.

In selecting which images to use, Trena said “we chose everything to embrace Bedford County.”

The bell is interactive, she said.

Webb

“It’s going to create memories. (People) are going to go ‘Oh, I know where this is,'” she said.

Until they picked up a lightbox, the two were holding slides up to a light to see the images, Brower said, adding her dad didn’t tend to categorize his files, so they would find family pictures mixed with work photos.

“Probably 80 percent (of the photos) I had never seen before,” Brower said.

They worked to focus on major points in Bedford, including Knisely’s schoolhouse, which is now located at Old Bedford Village. The one-room school is not only important to the county’s past, but also to her father’s as well, since he and his parents lived in it from 1955-57, she said.

Brower and Trena said it was hard to look through the images so soon after Webb’s death, but they wanted to make sure the county’s bell could be completed.

“Dad loved Bedford County. It was who he was,” Brower said. Looking through the images “felt like a last walk with him.”

“It was cathartic for both of us,” Trena said.

State Rep. Jesse Topper, R-Bedford, took note of the overflow crowd in the commissioner’s meeting room, where the unveiling and dedication was staged.

The crowd shows “the way this community comes together. … To fill rooms like this … to pay tribute to Bob … making this the celebration it should be,” Topper said.

The county’s bell “is a celebration of our history that is so important to Pennsylvania,” he said.

“As we celebrate 250 years of America, may this bell stand not only as a tribute to the past, but as a call to the future,” Goodman Shaffer said. “May it remind us to look closely, to lead thoughtfully and to serve generously just as those who made this project possible — always striving to see our community, and one another, through our very best lens.”

Bedford County’s America250PA bell will be on display at the Bedford County Courthouse and will occasionally be transported to other locations for special events, such as the Alum Bank Classic Weekend, the Bedford County Fair, Bedford’s Fall Foliage Festival and Everett’s Bloody Run Canoe & Kayak Classic, county officials said.

The bell was sponsored by Bedford Grange Mutual Insurance Co., the Bedford Evening Rotary Club and the Bedford Sunrise Rotary Club.